


What Nanami Did

by Janet_Coleman_Sides



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Nightmares, Other, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-25 01:04:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/633448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janet_Coleman_Sides/pseuds/Janet_Coleman_Sides
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nanami's trouble with animals comes to a nightmarish conclusion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Nanami Did

_'I saw what you did, Nanami Kiryuu. I saw it all.'_

There was no signature. Only the shape of a bird's footprint, as though left in the sand.

Nanami stared at the note, feeling nausea explode in her stomach, adrenaline rushing that sick sensation to every cell in her body. Her three minions knew only that their mistress had gone pale. They'd had plans today to harass Utena Tenjou, but now she dismissed them curtly and went straight home. 

Who?? _Who_ saw? NO ONE knew about that -- not even her best-beloved Oniisama. No, Touga had hunted high and low for his little cat, and Nanami had pretended to help. 

"Here, kitty kitty!" she'd called brightly, knowing full well that it would never come. Even its ghost could not come; it was lost, taken by the river. 

She'd made sure of that.

Time passed, the cat was assumed lost or strayed (no one said, 'dead', certainly not she) and ultimately forgotten. No one saw what really happened. No one but Nanami. 

And the bird. The bird. That cursed _bird!_

Were those flapping wings she heard, or was it just her skirts, snapping in the breeze like a flag...? She ran to her room and locked her door, closed the windows, closed the shades. Flinging herself across the bed, she put a pillow over her head and screamed herself to sleep.

In her dreams she walked down one of Ohtori's many lanes, and cows in a pasture lifted their heads to silently stare at her as she passed. They remained thus, absolutely still and unblinking, until she was well out of sight.

That's just cows. Cows are _stupid,_ thought Nanami fiercely, and stomped on down the path. 

But as she walked on, it grew worse. A pair of fox cubs, a tortoise, a tanuki, all paused in what they were doing (playing, plodding and pretending to be asleep, respectively) to fix their cold, alien eyes upon her, eerily still and wholly unnerving. Even butterflies seemed to sneer at her like spiteful girls.

She saw no birds, though, and this heartened her enormously. Let the animals stare. They were just jealous of her beauty, her accomplishments and charisma, just like everyone; envious of Nanami's birthright, and most of all, her closeness to her precious Oniisama.

After awhile she began to notice that she did not recognize her surroundings at all. Did she somehow wander right off the campus, without noticing? Still, this did not look like the neighboring town, either. It seemed... exotic... foreign... familiar.

It seemed like... India. 

Before her loomed an elephant, bedecked in jeweled harness and howdah. In the sumptuous howdah sat a great and terrible princess, dark-skinned, green-eyed. She was nude, yet intensely regal. A tiny monkey sat in her lap, eating dates. A big black crow perched on her shoulder, its sharp claws puncturing the bare flesh and producing drops of blood which glistened like rubies. She had a cloak of living roses that bound her to the howdah, and their thorns produced more such jewels.

The green eyes that regarded her were still and cold and watchful, just like those of the beasts.

And here, to Nanami's horror, there were thousands, no, _millions_ of birds, dazzling multicolored plumage, beautiful and horrible, and they too were staring at her. They festooned every branch of every tree like... the streamers... at Touga's birthday party long ago...

The princess -- or was she a witch? -- opened her mouth. She spoke softly and very politely, but what she said was this: "I saw what you did, Nanami Kiryuu.

_"I saw it all."_

The bird flew up off the princess' shoulder with a screech, dark feathers swirling, and came right for Nanami's face, scratching at her with his claws, pecking at her eyes.

She tried to cry out. 'No, no!' But all that emerged from her open mouth was the pathetic _mew_ of a terrified kitten, muffled by cardboard.


End file.
